Fires of Azrael

>I was drifting aroudn town last weekend and came upon a middle eastern type
>food wharehouse. As I was walking around I noticed some dried juniper
>berries and rememberd that inscence recipie you posted.

Yes, that would be my personal modified version of the classic "Fire of
Azrael" incense. It's a GREAT incense, although I'll caution anyone who
uses it that if you have even the slightest bit of sensitivity to smoke,
you want to be VERY stingy with your use of this stuff. It smokes like a
locomotive, and the smoke isn't that whispy, airy, Nag Champa like NewAge
crap. It's SMOKE, thick and white and pungent and heady. This is the ONLY
incense I have found that is worth a good goddam in the "out-of-doors", and
it's no wonder, considering that it was originally forulated for use in a
sea-shore ritual...

>but I am having a difficult time finding sandalwood chips..

I'll tell you what, I'm having a heck of a time finding it too. When I made
that first batch of FoA, I was lucky enough to find a cache of Sandlewood
chips (and powder) at a NewAge/Pagan store in Gaithersburg MD (called
Special Treasures), but after I cleaned them out, I've never seen the chips
there again (or anywhere else, for that matter). They carry Sandlewood
Powder, but no chips.

It's funny you should bring this up, because I just made a new batch of
this stuff myself, and I couldn't get Sandlewood Chips. What I did was
instead of 1oz of Sandlewood chips, I used 1/2 oz of extra Sandlewood
Powder, and about 1/4oz extra Cedar chips, 1/4oz extra juniper leaves and a
few extra drops of Sandlewood Oil. It will be a little more "zingy" this
way, but it has about the same texture and burn properties.

>but they only carried powders and ready made incense.
>Any ideas on what kinda places would carry such a item?

No idea, unless you get it mail order.

>(would never have thought I would run across the berries
>where I did, so I am sure I will run into the chips in an
>odd place as well. Always happens that way hehe)

Yeah, apparently juniper berries are used in Middle eastern or Indian
cooking somehow. I'm not sure what recipes they are used in, but they myst
impart an amazingly funky flavor. Although their aroma is pretty subtle (at
least when they are dried) they taste like strong Gin, so unless you groove
on gin-flacored couscous or like your curry to have overtones of Beefeater,
I can't see their redeeming culinary value...<G>

As for cedar chips and powder, I was lucky enough to help a friend cut down
a recently deceased Cedar on her farm last spring. I was sure to snag a few
handfulls of the sawdust, as well as a 2ft section of a 3" limb (which I
keep in an airtight container). It's a ready source of fresh-ground Cedar,
and the energy I put into it with the hatchet, saw, and rasp certainly adds
to the overall juju of the ingredient (much more than I could ever get from
store-bought cedar chips or powder...).